8: Eight-word Poems
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About this ebook
Kevin J. O'Conner's tenth book of poetry, 8: Eight-word Poems is a collection of nearly 700 eight-word poems written in August 2017 as a creative challenge. These short, often haiku-like verses range from the whimsical to the profound, covering many points in between. They frequently capture life's small moments and those random thoughts that enter one's mind, with the occasional reference to pop culture thrown in for good measure. Given the range of subjects covered—among them isolation, memory, life's small moments (remember?), personal history, and current events—8: Eight-word Poems can be viewed as a microcosm in short form of the themes that recur throughout O'Conner's work.
Kevin J. O'Conner
Kevin J. O’Conner (56) is not your typical poet. After 30 years of writing only sporadically, Kevin J. O’Conner returned to poetry in 2013—first as a creative exercise, then for the therapeutic benefits. Since 2015, he writes every day, exploring the craft of poetry through monthly writing challenges—‘my ongoing effort to write something that doesn’t sound like something I would write’, he says. Kevin’s poems explore isolation, memory, life’s small moments, and the experience of starting over at ‘a certain age’—always with an emphasis on straightforward expression. As of Spring 2019, Kevin has published eleven collections of poems, the latest of which is WISHES SOMETIMES HAVE CONSEQUENCES, plus four volumes of ‘love notes’ to the days of the week. His poems have also appeared in Raven Chronicles, Spindrift, The CDC Poetry Project, Lament for the Dead, and the anthology VOICES THAT MATTER, and as part of the Clay? VI (2016) exhibit at Kirkland Arts Center. When not writing poetry, Kevin can be found copy-editing documents from far-flung places, attending open-mic readings, designing books, and contemplating what to cook now that he is tired of soup. He lives in Bellingham with his mom's neurotic cat, Cleo III. (updated 28 October 2019)
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8 - Kevin J. O'Conner
This collection is the product of the last-minute writing challenge I came up with for August 2017. I say ‘last-minute’ because July 31 had come and gone, but I had not yet chosen something for August. On a whim, I decided that, because it is the eighth month of the year, my August challenge would be to write eight-word poems.
When the smoke cleared (or didn’t—as I write this introduction, a number of wildfires in the region have rendered the sky an eerie, dingy yellow-grey, and the sun an orangish-red, and ash particles can be seen floating through the air), I had written 691 of these poems—though, as I somehow skipped #56, they are numbered 1 through 692.
Because I wrote so many of these short poems, they cover most (if not all) of the themes that recur in my work. For that reason, I have chosen to include all 691 poems in this collection—the good, the bad, the clumsy, the clever, the goofy, the profound, the angry, the wistful, and many other points in between. In that sense, this collection can be thought of as a condensed introduction to my poetry.
8: EIGHT-WORD POEMS
1. Progress
My climb to the bottom
has been relentless
2
As August arrives
autumn inches ever closer
undetected
3. Correlation
I know it’s summer
when I miss strangers
4. Intimidation
What you need
looms above me
open wide
5
The comparison with love
diminishes everything
it touches
6. Cognitive dissonance
I know it’s possible
but don’t believe it
7. Timing
I wish you’d known me
before all that
8. Smiling faces
Smiles bled
every dream we had
for ourselves
9. Detail
You may have noticed
long before I did
10. Constriction
Water breathes
Trees breathe
I drown and choke
11
Summer
The first time
The last time
Goodbye
12. Insistence
I’m not falling this time
Help me up
13. Lesson
Existence is not life
I know better now
14. Absence
I’m dreaming
of sleeping it off
without you
15
The shoreline cut sideways
is an imperfect metaphor
16
The two-story rose
has farther to bend
17
If you were my Venus
I’d die loveless
18
Can you imagine
what it would be like?
19
The bandage slipped off
during the night
bloodless
20
Audrey Horne
knew too much
for her age
21
Two-factor authentication:
ensuring security
through minor inconvenience
22. The last place we lived
We used to have bunnies
in our yard
23. Mu Mu
Justified and ancient
was